In the biggest single day gain in six months, stock market the benchmark Sensex on Wednesday moved up a whopping 484 points to hit 33-month high of 20,687 on record inflows from foreign funds and strong overseas sentiment.
     
The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share barometer closed the day 484.54 points, or 2.4 per cent, up at 20,687.88 – its best closing since January 14, 2008, when the index had ended at 20,728.05.
     
The National Stock Exchange 50-share wide-based Nifty index too spurted by 2.31 per cent to close at 6,231.50.
     
Intra-day, the Sensex had zoomed 500 points to hit a high of 20,703, just 500 points short of its highest close of 21,206.77 -- achieved on January 10, 2008.
     
India was the best performing market among Asian peers today. The broad based rally was led by IT, capital goods and banking stocks. Investors continue to remain bullish on IT stocks ahead of Infosys results, brokers said.
     
It was IT sector that stole the show on the Dalal Street, with Infosys zooming 2.57 per cent ahead of September quarter result -- to be announced on October 15. TCS climbed about 5 per cent -- the most in Sensex pack -- and Wipro 3.69 per cent.
     
Investor sentiment was also upbeat after technology major Intel Corp beat the Wall Street forecast by reporting a 59 per cent jump in third quarter profit to USD 2.95 billion.
     
Analysts said, the sentiment on Street turned buoyant on China's positive trade data, rebound in Australia's consumer confidence in October and expectations of further steps by the US Fed to bolster the economy.
     
Back home, attractive pricing of Coal India Ltd IPO also helped boost the sentiments. The government Tuesday set a price band of Rs 225 to Rs 245 a share for the country's largest ever IPO (expected garner over Rs 15,000 crore) by state-run CIL.
     
"The liquidity driven rally piggybacking poor IIP numbers is a strong indication of the underlying strength in markets," Consortium Securities AVP Vishwesh Choudhary said.
     
Inflows from overseas fund houses are about to cross the magical Rs 1,00,000 crore mark, the highest net investment in a single in year in Indian equities. As per market regulator Sebi data, FIIs have infused a whopping Rs 99,874 crore so far this year in Indian stock market.
     
Market breakdown

Reliance Industries Ltd, that holds the maximum weight in the Sensex, surged 1.67 per cent to settle at Rs 1,071.50.      

Financial was another sector that attracted heavy buying, with HDFC zooming 4.47 per cent, HDFC Bank 2.52 per cent, SBI 2 per cent and ICICI Bank 1.23 per cent.
     
NTPC was the sole loser stock in the entire Sensex pack. The scrip ended with a loss of 0.88 per cent.

Other major gainers of the day include L&T that jumped 2.68 per cent; HUL, 3.67 per cent; ITC, 2.72 per cent, ACC, 2.67 per cent and DLF, 2.55 per cent.
     
Among frontline auto stocks, Maruti advanced 2.48 per cent, M&M 2.46 per cent, Tata Motors 1.60 per cent and Hero Honda 0.32 per cent.
     
All the 13-sectoral indices on the BSE ended in the green with IT, technology, capital goods and realty stocks leading the gains.
     
The rest of the globe

On the global front, all the major world indices were in the green. In Asia, China's benchmark Shanghai index rose 0.70 per cent and Japan's Nikkei Index 0.16 per cent.
     
European markets too were in positive, with the Britain's FTSE 100 surging 1.27 per cent. US Futures were also quoting higher, signalling a firm opening on the Wall Street.